The Stop Repression in Hong Kong campaign is planning a day of worldwide protests on Friday 4 May. We urge readers around the world to participate in the protests against increasing political repression in Hong Kong and China. More information and campaign material can be found here. Continue reading “4 May – global protest day”

Demosisto’s Agnes Chow is blocked from standing in March by-election with others likely to follow

Chinaworker.info:Dikang

As widely feared the Chinese dictatorship has begun blocking pro-democracy candidates from standing in upcoming by-elections to fill four of the seats left empty after the ousting of six opposition legislators last year. The move is the latest in Hong Kong’s creeping coup against the mass democracy movement.

This short video, featuring ousted Hong Kong lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung (Long Hair) and Sally Tang Mei-ching of Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong) has been produced by the Stop Repression in Hong Kong campaign.

Less than four minutes long, the video shows how the democracy struggle in Hong Kong has come under unprecedented attack in the past 12 months. One-fifth of the opposition in the legislature has been thrown out by the government and the courts on the flimsiest of pretexts. Young democracy activists have been served with harsh jail terms. Dozens of new political trials are looming in the first months of 2018.

Hong Kong has entered a dark night of political repression香港步入白色恐怖的黑暗時代 Powerful video from Stop Repression in Hong Kong explains what is happening in Hong Kong and why we need international solidarity to fight authoritarian rule!香港已步入了政治打壓、白色恐怖的黑暗時代，呼籲國際人民聲援香港，抵抗威權統治！

The Chinese dictatorship is determined to stamp out Hong Kong’s culture of mass protests for democracy, which it fears could spread to China. Pressure is building from Beijing for the Hong Kong government – it’s puppet – to implement Article 23 national security laws that would massively curtail freedom of speech and make it a criminal offence to oppose the ruling ‘Communist’ Party (CCP).

Disrespect for national anthem punishible by three years in prison – latest installment in a wave of undemocratic measures

Adam N. Lee, Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong)

The Stop Repression in Hong Kong campaign was launched to highlight the rapidly worsening attacks on democratic rights by Hong Kong’s government.

Socialist Action initiated this campaign in consultation with left organisations and worker activists in several countries. Key assistance has been given by the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), the international socialist organisation with parties and groups in 40 countries. In October, protesters in 22 cities around the world – from Bangalore to Vancouver – answered the call of the campaign to demonstrate outside China’s embassies.

The great crackdown of 2017 has seen six legislators undemocratically ejected from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (Legco), giving the pro-government parties a ‘super majority’ that enables them to rewrite the Legco rule-book in their favour.

This is not at all what the voters wanted in the September 2016 Legco elections, when the pro-government camp suffered one of its biggest defeats in terms of votes. In that election the combined opposition parties got 60 percent of the vote, an increase from 56 percent in the elections of 2012. This was obtained on the highest election turnout for two decades.

The establishment’s purge of the Legco has nothing to do with ‘rules’ or ‘oaths’ – that was a legal smokescreen created by the Chinese dictatorship and its Hong Kong puppets. Its real purpose is to attack the most radical voices in the democracy struggle, such as ‘Long Hair’ Leung Kwok-hung, and try to eliminate these forces from the struggle. This will not succeed and can actually blow up in the government’s faces, increasing public support for the ‘radicals’.

Under Beijing’s pressure, which ultimately reflects its fear of mass radicalisation spreading from Hong Kong to China, the news media in Hong Kong is increasingly a megaphone for China’s dictatorship. Reporters Without Borders lowered Hong Kong’s press freedom ranking in 2017 to 73 (out of 180 countries). This ranking has been falling year after year since 2002, when Hong Kong was ranked 18 in the world. China is ranked 176, the fourth worst in the world.